Foxu's Japanese Guide

Tools

自修 ガイド

My guide to learning Japanese through self study

These are just my suggestions for tools and strategies to learning Japanese
on your own based on my own experiences.
I'm going by JLPT levels to easily break up the language into 5
experience levels. JLPT stands for "Japanese Learning Proficiency Test."
It's the standard test for judging one's proficiency in japanese.
Even if you're not interested in taking the test itself,
you can use it to help find materials at your level.

JLPT N4 Level

Learn Basic Grammar

Vocabulary

You're still going to have plenty of missing vocabulary, so start in on N4 words in your favorite SRS.
I wrote the app JLPT SRS
using my favorite SRS style.

Listening

You might be able avoid listening
practice at N5 if you're an Otaku, but at N4 you'll need some.
Ohayou
is a well made app with a ton of JLPT based listening questions.

JLPT N3 Level

Vocabulary

You're still in need some vocabulary, but you'll notice
basic SRS is not as an effective study tool as it once was.
I wrote the app JLPT SRS
using my favorite SRS style.

Reading

Now it's time for reading practice! My
App Reibun
can help you get started with practice sentences including english definitions, and
Yotsuba is a great manga to start with.

Listening

Keep up with that listening practice!
Ohayou
is a great app with a ton of JLPT based listening questions

JLPT N2 Level

Reading

You can still finish out your SRS - but reading is going to
be much more crucial at this level. The app
Tango Risto
can be very helpful at this point.
As it pulls in articles from NHK Easy News
and other sources, and matches up words to their english definitions.

Listening

Keep up with that listening practice!
Ohayou
is a great app with a ton of JLPT based listening questions.
Tango Risto also includes audio sources from
NHK Easy News.